This audit was performed a few years back, so ignore if this has been posted previously. I stumbled across the PDF and it blew me away reading it again, no wonder WA state has scrubbed this report/these PDF's from their site.... wow.
Performance Audit, Washington State Patrol’s Radio Narrowbanding Project
Summary: The Washington State Patrol opted to meet a federal mandate by using digital narrow band radio equipment and by entering into an agreement with the Department of Justice to use its Integrated Wireless Network (IWN), built by Motorola. Washington State Auditors found the Patrol could have benefited from the knowledge provided by an engineering study before designing its narrow band system, while soliciting competitive proposals could have helped it better assess the best project approach. While it has likely maintained coverage where it was already good, and partnered successfully with other agencies to address coverage issues, it has likely lost coverage in areas that had poor but usable sound quality before converting to narrow band.
Massive coverage problems, single source supplier, it was not put out to bid, they're not even on their own system, they're couch surfing on a Fed system that who knows how long will be maintained or running, no engineering studies done before hand to look at coverages issues, and while the US govt was prepared to pay for it.. WA State said "naa, our tax payers will pick it up for you" and they continue to this day to have problems.
It absolutely amazes me that the Washington State Patrol chose to let the state taxpayers eat the expense for this narrow banding. The US Govt made it quite clear to all agencies there was funding available as it was a US Govt mandate. the WSP's response "We didn't have anyone to fill out the grant paperwork", so instead, they chose to let the taxpayers pick it up. It's been a pure orgy of out of control wild spending with all these grants by agencies picking up the latest technology with very little kicked in by their state tax payers, other than Washington State that is, what a waste of a great opportunity.
I've attached both the full audit report as well as a 2 page summary.
This is our govt at work people.... that's how much they give a hoot about how much stuff costs YOU!!!!.
Jennifer
Performance Audit, Washington State Patrol’s Radio Narrowbanding Project
Summary: The Washington State Patrol opted to meet a federal mandate by using digital narrow band radio equipment and by entering into an agreement with the Department of Justice to use its Integrated Wireless Network (IWN), built by Motorola. Washington State Auditors found the Patrol could have benefited from the knowledge provided by an engineering study before designing its narrow band system, while soliciting competitive proposals could have helped it better assess the best project approach. While it has likely maintained coverage where it was already good, and partnered successfully with other agencies to address coverage issues, it has likely lost coverage in areas that had poor but usable sound quality before converting to narrow band.
Massive coverage problems, single source supplier, it was not put out to bid, they're not even on their own system, they're couch surfing on a Fed system that who knows how long will be maintained or running, no engineering studies done before hand to look at coverages issues, and while the US govt was prepared to pay for it.. WA State said "naa, our tax payers will pick it up for you" and they continue to this day to have problems.
It absolutely amazes me that the Washington State Patrol chose to let the state taxpayers eat the expense for this narrow banding. The US Govt made it quite clear to all agencies there was funding available as it was a US Govt mandate. the WSP's response "We didn't have anyone to fill out the grant paperwork", so instead, they chose to let the taxpayers pick it up. It's been a pure orgy of out of control wild spending with all these grants by agencies picking up the latest technology with very little kicked in by their state tax payers, other than Washington State that is, what a waste of a great opportunity.
I've attached both the full audit report as well as a 2 page summary.
This is our govt at work people.... that's how much they give a hoot about how much stuff costs YOU!!!!.
Jennifer
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